There’s also a couple other monsters hanging around too, and as each hunt lasts a maximum of 50 minutes, it’s quite worth tracking them down too if you want to make the most of the demo. And for a game where your positioning, timing and animation frames are vital things to consider, it completely transforms the hunt into an elite tier experience.Īs far as the demo itself goes, it’s the same as the time-limited one Switch owners got earlier this year where you can choose to hunt three different monsters on three difficulties: Great Izuchi for beginners, Mizutsune for advanced players, and an extra tough version of flagship monster Magnamalo. It’s so smooth my fingers are sliding off the keyboard just thinking about it as I type.
Playing the PC version with unlimited frame rates though? The difference is eye-openingly clear.
The RE Engine is so well optimised that even at 30 FPS I fooled myself into thinking it was a 60 FPS game, with nary a frame drop even as my hunter would zip around the map with Wirebugs or up to four of us are smacking away one or two monsters onscreen. Personally, I thought the Switch version ran fantastically. However, the real game changer is the frame rate.
Even on my standard 1080p laptop screen, that’s already a sharper picture than the Switch version, which ran at 756p docked, dropping to 540p in handheld mode. If you have the relevant monitor, Rise also supports 4K resolution and ultra-wide aspect ratios, which are all fine additions that any decent PC port should have. That said, if you can appreciate the difference between graphical fidelity and art direction, then Rise trumps its predecessor on the latter, from its aesthetic inspired by Japanese culture and mythology to its hugely diverse and varied monster roster. Yes, you do get the option of applying improved textures but you shouldn’t go in expecting the same look as World.
The PC version of Monster Hunter Rise is essentially a port of the original Switch game. Not only has a PC version been announced for release on January 12, 2022, but having tried out the demo early, it’s precisely the enhanced port that might just tempt me to play the game from scratch. The good news is that PC owners will finally be able to get a taste of what they’ve been missing out on.